This is a pet annoyance of mine too - along with (as noted below) the way the machine wakes-up if you unplug a mouse/keyboard. I'd be very interested if anyone does have a fix/solution!
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robsoftAug 24 '09 at 7:18

4 Answers
4

I don't think so because the machine needs to run some routines to handle you unplugging the device.

EDIT: Let me explain a little more clearly :)

If you write an application that subscribes to mouse events, wouldn't you like to know if the mouse has vanished completely from the system? A more important example could be the OS X subsystem which detects when the user is inputting information so that it can awake from being asleep ... if the machine did not wake up when you unplug something it would never know that it is there again when you plug it back in, so if you unplugged a keyboard or mouse and plugged it back in, pressed a key or clicked the mouse, the system would not wake up again because it has not run the routines to handle it. I hope that makes sense to someone :)

Except it also happens to me when I unplug my mouse.
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Loïc WolffAug 24 '09 at 7:02

@dex: It's by design when you unplug or plug in an USB device it will wake up the computer.
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ChealionAug 24 '09 at 17:47

Plugging/Unplugging USB devices while the machine is asleep is also a good way to crash it. My powerbook will fail to wake up properly about 50% of the time when a device is removed while sleep mode is active.
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Chris NavaAug 24 '09 at 21:37

The simple fact is that you are changing the state of the USB Bus, and the computer has to process that. On a PC, it's not as critical, because most manufacturers still want you to use the PS/2 & mouse ports for keyboards.... So you don't normally have devices being plugged & unplugged on the USB bus...

Have you tried turning off automatic sync in itunes? I believe that might resolve the issue...